It's been a bit of a slowish reading month for me, just four books read this month, which is why I haven't updated until almost the end of the month!
First up, The Nameless Ones, book 19 in John Connolly's 'Charlie Parker' series.
So, I'll say up front that although this is book 19 in the Charlie Parker series, this is not a book about him. He is barely in it and, for me, that was a bit disappointing. The story is actually about his two assassin sidekicks, Louis and Angel. The two men live together as a couple, *spoiler alert* Angel is now in recovery after a diagnosis of cancer. They head off to Amsterdam after the death of some people who helped them in book 17,
A Book of Bones. The murders were particularly gruesome and malicious, the two assassins know who did it, two brothers from Serbia, and naturally their days are numbered. So, there was a lot in this about the Balkan wars of the 1990s. Not my favourite historical period, I have to admit, as I remember all too clearly the terrible scenes on the news every night. That said, this was an interesting take on that war and I did learn things. I didn't quite realise how much Tito was holding the various countries that made up Yugoslavia together and this book explains that well, and then how it all fell apart when he died. I do still prefer Charlie Parker to actually be in his books, he appears for one chapter I think, and that's not nearly enough for me. Never mind. This was a decent book, I gave it 4 stars on Goodreads, rounded up from 3.5 because Connolly is an exceptional writer. It also means I will read the next book,
The Furies, sooner than expected, definitely this autumn.
Next, Murder at the Fitzwilliam by Jim Eldridge.
So, this is a historical crime yarn, set in the 1890s in Cambridge in England. Daniel Wilson is an ex Scotland yard detective who used to work with Inspector Abeline, who famously investigated the Ripper murders. Daniel is now a private investigator. He's called in to help look into the murder of an unknown man found dead in a sarcophogas in the Fitzwilliam museum. This brings him into contact with curator, Abigail Fenton, who is an Egyptologist and who found the body. The two end up working together to discover who the dead man was and how someone got him into the museum in the middle of night and into a sarcophogas. I thought the plot of this sounded excellent and 'my kind of thing'. And it was, to a certain extent, a fun read, and I read to the end and never wanted to give up. The slight problem for me was when Daniel Wilson seemed to have no problem talking about sexual deviancy to Abigail, an unmarried Victorian woman. One of the practices would raise eyebrows 'now' let alone then and I didn't buy that he would just casually tell her about it as though they were discussing the weather. I also didn't think the dialogue was very Victorian, but that's just my personal taste. If I'm reading a book set then, I prefer it when the author makes an effort to make it sound Victorian rather than a bit modern. Other readers are not so bothered, I realise. But, all in all, not a bad read. 3 stars
Lastly, Nocturnes Volume 2: Night Music, a collection of weird short stories by John Connolly.
This was a partial re-read for me. I read quite a few of the stories way back in 2016 I think, so very few of them felt all that familiar. What I didn't read back then was the novella entitled,
The Fractured Atlas: Five Fragments and this was because it's connected to books 16 and 17 of the Charlie Parker series and I had not yet got that far. I read those recently so was able to return to this anthology and read the macabre history of a book that ruined lives. The novella starts in The Netherlands of several hundred years ago and ends in London with the fate of various antiquarian book hunters and sellers. Brilliant. Other stories I liked,
The Caxton Private Lending Library & Book Depository and another story about said library,
Holmes on the Range. Both 'so' good, I loved the idea of a library where characters from classic books go to live.
The Children of Dr. Lyall was 'very' thought provoking and
Razorshins was set during The Prohibition in the forests of Maine and was incredibly creepy and deeply atmospheric. At the end of the book,
I Live Here is quite a long biographical account of Connolly's writing life which, as a huge fan, I thoroughly enjoyed; someone coming to the author for the first time might not find it quite so interesting. All in all, an absolutely superb short story collection full of creepiness and perfect for the autumn spooky season. 5 stars
I'v also just finished this:
The Snow Spider Trilogy by Jenny Nimmo is a three book volume telling the story of nine year old, Gwyn Griffiths, who discovers that he's a wizard. I'll review this another time but it was so enjoyable and the sense of the isolated villages in the mountains of Wales was absolutely perfect. A children's (middle-grade) book that I gave 5 stars to.
I hope you're all keeping well, enjoying autumn if you live in the northern hemisphere, and finding loads of good books to read.
